Notice Period

The notice period is the advance written warning one party to a UAE employment contract must give the other before terminating it. Under the Labour Law the contractual notice must fall between thirty and ninety days, and it applies to both employer and employee outside probation (probation has its own shorter rules). During notice the employment continues normally: the employee works, the employer pays full salary, and either side may agree to pay in lieu of notice instead. Failing to serve or pay notice exposes the breaching party to compensation equal to the wage for the missed period. Notice periods surface constantly in UAE practice — in resignation planning, in negotiating garden leave for senior staff, in MOHRE labour complaints where employers deduct notice from final settlements, and in calculating the end-of-service figure a departing employee should actually receive.